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The state Republican Party has entered the lion’s den of traditionally liberal, Democratic Jamaica Plain by opening a campaign office in Hyde Square. “We’re opening offices in corners of the state we never have before,” said Massachusetts Republican Party spokesperson Tim Buckley in a Gazette interview, adding that the GOP is growing rapidly throughout...

Mayor Thomas Menino today vetoed the City Council’s latest attempt at redistricting. The council had passed by a 7-6 vote last Wednesday a plan by local City Councilors Matt O’Malley and Tito Jackson. Menino had vetoed an earlier plan, citing concerns of minority concentration in District 4 and reiterated those concerns with the latest...

HYDE SQ.–The owners of the former Blessed Sacrament Church complex apologized for their secrecy in planning high-end housing on the site, and pledged to hear out any alternative ideas, at a meeting tonight to address community controversy. But they also indicated that the plans basically remain the same unless someone comes up with millions of...

State Department of Public Health (DPH) Commissioner John Auerbach, a Jamaica Plain resident, resigned today amid the growing scandal surrounding the now-closed state drug lab at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute in JP. The drug lab, which was located at the Institute at 305 South St. and examined drug evidence in criminal...

The state investigation that shut down the drug testing lab at the William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute is not looking into the 17 other labs in the building, which include disease control and racehorse drug testing labs. Dr. Linda Han, who oversaw all 18 public labs in the building as director of Bureau...

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) has scheduled a meeting for Wed., Sept. 19 to review controversial high-end apartment and condo plans for the Blessed Sacrament Campus. The meeting was posted on the BRA’s website Sept. 14 but was not formally announced. The meeting is reconvening a community advisory committee (CAC) that helped develop the campus...

FOREST HILLS—The state Department of Transportation (MassDOT) maintains the Casey Overpass is safe to drive on and under, following emergency repairs that closed one direction of traffic on Aug. 31. Protective fabric shielding to contain debris previously had been installed on other areas of the overpass. But fabric will not be placed on the...

Photos by Daniella Rascon The second annual Jamaica Plain Music Festival drew hundreds of people to see two-dozen local bands play at Jamaica Pond Park on Sept. 8. The show went on despite bouts of rain. The music fest is already joining the ranks of beloved local traditions, as attested by former JPer Courtney...

Jamaica Plain should be voting Green, not Democratic, this fall if it really wants to see its famous progressive ideals in action, said Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein in an exclusive Gazette interview. “I think Jamaica Plain is really at the cutting edge of the progressive movement,” said Stein, a Lexington resident...

The debate over the Casey Overpass’s fate has drawn passionate activism from some Jamaica Plain residents. Not so for Richard Heath. Instead, it propelled him to write a book about the history of Forest Hills, a neighborhood in JP that the overpass spans. The overpass, which was built in the 1950s, is the State...